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5 Ways to Monetize Your Marketing Emails

Whether you’re just testing out email marketing for your business or have published dozens of emails, one thing’s for sure: the ultimate goal of any email campaign is to attract clients for your business.

Because let’s face it: you’re not spending hours each week/month sweating through yet another email for your health, right? 🙂

I’ve written over 500 marketing emails since starting my business and have definitely made more than my share of mistakes, with enough successes thrown in to keep me going. 🙂

Thankfully, you can learn from my flops and shortcut your way to profitable email marketing the easy(er) way, with these top 5 ways to use your emails to attract clients and earn revenues for your business. Let’s check ’em out:

Once upon a time, I thought it would be a great idea to give my email subscribers tons of options to choose from, and would send emails promoting pretty much everything I had to offer. I quickly discovered that doing so was highly ineffective, and have since realized there are several reasons for this tactic’s dismal results: 1) most readers are too busy to look through all of the options; 2) a confused (or uncertain) mind doesn’t buy (bet you’ve heard that one before :)); and 3) offering too many options dilutes the specificity of your message, making your email as a whole too vague to appeal to many folks.

For instance, my copywriting business offers a variety of template packages for pretty much any online marketing copywriting need small business owners may have, from website copywriting to email copywriting and many others. I’ve tried in the past to send emails offering a generic sale on all templates and got a small nibble of sales. But when I promote ONE template package at a time, say, email marketing templates, I’m able to tailor my emails to the needs of someone who is using or interested in using email marketing and who are prime candidates for templates to help shortcut their email writing path. And the response rate? Through the roof.

So if you have a business like mine that touches on many different challenges or goals, be sure to focus on one at a time in your email marketing efforts.

Monetize Your Emails Tip #2: Feature an affiliate product/service.

Are you finding yourself thinking, But, Tammi, I don’t HAVE a product to feature?No worries, this next step’s got you covered. This technique works particularly well for those who are new in business and haven’t yet created compelling service packages and/or information products for passive income. What you would do here is to become an affiliate of someone within or related to your industry that sells something your community would find useful. If you’re a virtual assistant serving small business owners, for example, you might try looking for business coaches or copywriters who offer products/service packages that are helpful to your readers, without overshadowing their need for your services. Once you get an idea of non-competing businesses who might serve as perfect affiliate partners, check their website to see if they have an affiliate program you can sign up for. An awesome thing about this option is that many who offer affiliate programs will also provide your with pre-written emails to promote their goods. Score!

Monetize Your Emails Tip #3: Offer a free consultation.

Yes, I said a FREE consultation. So no, the consultation itself isn’t how you monetize your emails, but getting folks on the phone with you for a chat about what they need and how you can help them is a great way to open the door to a long-term working relationship. And even if you don’t sign all of them on as new clients, you can still use the opportunity to get to know your readers and further foster that one-on-one relationship with them (‘cuz let’s face it, your readers are much less likely to jump ship – a.k.a. unsubscribe – when you’re no longer just some stranger they came across online but an actual living, breathing human being that cares about them and their goals). Even if they don’t buy from you right away, that one conversation can go a long way toward easing them into a business relationship with you down the road. (Remember: email marketing is a long-term marathon, not a short-term sprint!)

If you have any testimonials from happy clients, you can (and should) include them in your email promotions. This technique works because your readers are far more likely to believe a third-party talking about how great you are than if you tried to sing your own praises (and just came off as braggy and insincere in the process). Plus, if you can get your clients to be specific in their testimonials, and share the actual results they achieved (i.e. lost 10 pounds, earned 6 figures, landed their dream job, etc.), folks reading it will be inclined to think that if such results were possible for your client, it might be possible for them to reach similar goals. And you just might find folks contacting you based on those testimonials alone and asking to work with you. So if you’ve got ’em, flaunt ’em!

Monetize Your Emails Tip #5: Always tell readers how to get more.

Say you’ve just penned an amazing email newsletter article about the impact of underwater basket weaving on a person’s overall happiness. Or something to that affect. 🙂 Your readers are all excited about the subject matter, and they’re picking up these great tips and then…nothing. You sign off with a wave and a “see ya next week!” So your readers go on their merry way, not getting the help they need. What a letdown! Instead, always end your newsletter articles with an action step. Ask yourself, What can they do next to increase their success rate? Your next step might be to attend a free webinar that dives deeper into the subject matter, to request a free consultation if they’re ready to hire a professional, to purchase a training product or even to connect with you via Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn for more great tips and even some interaction with you (if you’re active on those platforms).

The bottom line is that you’ve worked hard to fill your email newsletter list with potential clients who are interested in what you have to offer, and your emails should be working to build trust, credibility, and, ultimately, buying relationships with those readers.

Next Steps: Now that you have an idea of how to monetize your email marketing efforts, your next step is writing the smokin’ hot email CONTENT that gets read and gets results (you know, folks actually signing up for your freebies, requesting your consults, buying your goods, that sorta stuff). Check out the resource-packed Write Persuasive Emails template & training package to get everything you need to write amazing, client-attracting emails in a hurry. Click here to learn more and get instant access.

Did you find this article helpful? If so, please use the buttons below to share this with your friends and colleagues. And then come on back and leave me a comment. How will your monetize your emails?

_________________________________________________________________________________Tammi Metzler, founder of The Write Associate, is a self-professed “word geek.” Her greatest joy is in playing with words all day to find just the right combination to get folks all fired up. In the daytime hours, this means writing online marketing copy that grabs the attention and interest of readers so that they “get” the awesomeness of the product/service in question and think “I gotta get me some of that!” After hours this often means finding just the right words to get the response she’s looking for from her husband and/or 9-year-old daughter & toddler son (grin). She offers tons of resources about creating compelling marketing copy that excites & engages your ideal clients on her blog at www.WriteAssociate.com.